reality is weirder than you think

Month: June 2017
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First Lady style has a long and storied history in the modern United States. Jackie Kennedy embodied it the most, and even Michelle Obama had her own point of view (though I suspect it was heavily influenced by Anna Wintour).

But because Everybody Hates Trump ™, Melania’s style is not getting talked about like it should be.

I like how she brings an understated elegance, with a high-fashion twist, back to the White House. I like how she still embodies, to a degree, Eastern European style. Sometimes I like her, other times I don’t, but I do appreciate that she has an eye for fashion and wears clothes well. We need more of that.

And now that I’ve found that Getty images will let you embed photos for editorial purposes (which this certainly is), I’ll be delving more into Melania’s style. And probably the rest of Trump-affiliated women. And maybe some internet personalities, because why not.

Long ago, I started to think about ways to nurture right-leaning artists, who are completely shunned by liberal groupthink, or completely closeted. I haven’t made any inroads on that (yet–although this site I hope will help), but this gentleman is taking action:

This may sound grandiose, but I want to overturn the placeholders and decision makers within the major labels, radio, and licensing. I want to give this back to the people and allow them to decide what they listen to and who they support. I want to bring genuine songs back to pop culture and wake people up through the power of music.

I want to create new platforms for songwriters and artists that move past the traditional routes. Music executives and corporations have monopolized and plagued the market for way too long and I don’t want to follow an orchestra of hate and censorship.

I’ve had to stop listening to some musical artists because I can no longer tolerate the lyrics. If a musician is good enough, I can listen past it or rationalize away idiotic lyrics, but that is rare. Part of the reason I love k-pop so much is mostly it’s not political, and the lyrics are in Korean so I can’t understand them even if I wanted to.

Music is one of those especially important things because it seeps into our unconscious minds so quickly, and spends so much time rattling around in our brains.

Since half (if not more) of the battle is winning hearts–not minds–having that touchstone will be invaluable.

In a previous post, I mused about how it seems to be the anonymous people who do much of the actual, meticulous (even autistic) work of creating something great–be it a beautiful couture dress or identifying an Antifa thug.

I got to thinking (quelle surprise!) more about what it means to do anonymous work.

There’s the trope of the writer or musician* who toils for years in obscurity before sudden, “overnight” success. That trope holds true–I can think of a few bloggers and musicians off the top of my head who have talked about it.

The only way those people have any hope of being successful once they break through into the public consciousness is by having a huge body of work standing behind them. They’ve refined their style, their ideas, and have a huge track record to establish credibility and trust. That’s an immense amount of work.

And it was all done when they were anonymous.

But thinking about it, the levels of anon-ness ratchet up (or down, I guess, depending on your scale) at each step of the way.

For instance, I’ve been working on a project at work. I’m at basic-tier anon status at work–indispensable to my one little area but virtually unknown to everybody else. And honestly, if I got hit by a bus on my commute tomorrow, they could find some other anon to do the work after me.

This project was started by other anons who were looking for a way to make a seasonal project slightly easier (a downgrade from “you’re going through hell but good luck with that” to “this is the worst thing I’ve ever done”). Myself and my co-anon worked with a process improvement guy to ~get this project off the ground~ with the blessing of a mid-tier Known Person.

(Say “anon” one more time.)

After weeks of toiling in obscurity, today was the day to present our findings to our Known Person. This person tasked us with presenting with her boss and big boss, which will mean that my team becomes less anonymous.

Then we might go on a roadshow around our organization…becoming even less anonymous.

Our resident career advisor thinks we may be able to leverage this into a consultant-type gig. We would become ever so slightly less anon with every project that we theoretically helped with.

Maybe we write a book. Maybe we growth-hack our way onto fake news. Maybe then we become keynote speakers at corporate events.

Maybe someday we will be a Known Entity (even in just a small circle).

And then we will be an overnight sensation.

Woohoo!

*I’m specifically referring to Travie McCoy’s rap bit in Cobra Starship’s “Kiss My Sass” (Yeah, took a little time but I’m finally here / Ten years deep just to make things clear). I forgot how much I appreciate that album–it’s really good to put on when you need to plunge through a bunch of work that makes you cringe. Listen to “Prostitution is the World’s Oldest Profession (And I, Dear Madame, am a Professional)” and you’ll know what I’m saying.

Edit: This is probably a troll but 1) I fell for it and didn’t do my research, and 2) it’s still kinda funny, so I’ll keep it.

The word “optics” was fairly new to me this election cycle, but clearly has a necessary place in political vocabulary. Tactical visual presentation (or the analysis thereof) is a major part of politics today, as we continue our slide into the post-literate age.

How a person or situation is presented visually is just as important (or more important, frankly, since people are so often seeing a thumbnail and headline but not clicking through to the full article) as how it is verbally “spun” or rhetorically presented. The visual can be grokked in a split second, and can be just as persuasive and packed with meaning as a long-form essay.

So when Eric Trump showed up on my twitter timeline with a fashy haircut….

I’m not going to pretend to know what Eric Trump is thinking, or what he tells his barber. I would venture to guess that he puts some thought into his visual presentation, given that he was already in the public eye before his father became the President of the United States.

When we started this roller coaster ride two years ago, he had helmet-hair. Not sure if he used more hairspray than his wife, but it’s not the greatest look for him. Donald gets away with the outrageous hair because it is just as cartoonishly exaggerated as his public persona. Eric Trump doesn’t have the persona to go with weird hair, and whatever persona goes with crunchy hairspray, it’s probably not great.

Eric then switched things up to the “stereotypical 1930s movie villain banker” hairstyle (he needs some round, wire-rimmed glasses to complete the look, and a pinstripe suit) which was a welcome change. The side part broke up the crunchy helmet-hair effect, and plays better with his hairline.

(I’m not going to look any further back, because the results are tragic.)

But speaking of villains

Remember when the Trump children released this photo? Lots of comparisons to movie villains from the left. Cartoony, Wall Street-style villains. The ones the left loves to hate.

Or at least, they USED to love to hate them.

Since the Hillary speech, the alt-right has become the shadow behind every door and the boogeyman under every bed. Perhaps the new fashy Eric Trump haircut has been updated to reflect the new villains of the day: the alt-right.

Regardless of what this says about his political inclinations, I like this fashy version of his hair. Definitely an upgrade.

For the past few months, I’ve been moving toward the “no-poo” lifestyle. That is, no shampoo. The theory is that the harsh detergents in shampoo strip the natural oils from one’s hair and scalp, which then causes one’s oil glands to overcompensate, pumping out more oil which is then attacked with more shampoo, lather rinse repeat.

At first I tried New Wash, a non-shampoo-but-still-full-of-chemicals hair laundering product, which is a little like a lotion that you massage onto your scalp. It smells heavenly, and left my hair feeling incredibly soft (I loved the moment that the first rinse hit my hair–so soft) but my hair never quite adjusted and always got a bit greasy unless I washed it twice in a row. At $40 for a starter bottle and $90 for a three month supply (aka $30 a month), I’d want this shampoo to wash my hair AND scrub the shower out afterward. Limp, greasy hair the next day* was not my favorite and certainly didn’t make me want to continue using it, no matter how soft it left my hair or how good it smells. (And it smells reeeeeally good.)

*I recognize that there’s an adaption phase going off shampoo, but I have not had the same issues with other types of anti-shampoo.

Next up: baking soda. Incredibly effective, but I hear it can dry out your scalp if you use it too much. I think I’ll save it for occasional use in place of a clarifying shampoo.

I’ve read a bit about clay-based shampoos. Since clay masks are an excellent way of pulling out impurities from one’s face, it makes sense that a clay-based cleaning product would also get one’s hair clean. So today I decided to experiment with a clay-based haircleaner.

I made an infusion of some herbs, based the haircare recommendations in Jeanne Rose’s Herbal Body Book:

Rosemary

Chamomile

Liver detox tea: dandelion and burdock root

Once that cooled, I mixed up

A squirt of sweet almond oil

A drop of tea tree oil

A drop of oil of oregano

A few drops of peppermint oil

Probably 1.5 tbs of bentonite clay

A splash of apple cider vinegar

and enough of the herbal infusion to make a runny paste

It was kind of fun to use in the shower, like a mask for my hair, but I made a huge tactical error with the oils. Maybe the essential oils on their own would have been okay, but the sweet almond oil didn’t rinse out of my hair, even with an apple cider vinegar rinse. I basically have been deep-conditioning my scalp ever since I got out of the shower.

Notes

My hair is soft, but the roots feel more like 3 or 4 day hair. Don’t add oil!

Do add a higher concentration of apple cider vinegar for the final rinse.